More Jon Jones

Biography

TRAINING: Practice with Coach Jackson and / or Winkeljohn, 2-3 times a day... a morning and night session plus one private a day, as well as strength and conditioning every night and swimming every Tuesday and Thursday with Sandia High School’s swim team.

When and why did you start training for fighting? I started training MMA in 2007. I had an unexpected child in college and I needed to make some money.

• UFC light heavyweight champion (youngest UFC champ in history at 23 years, 242 days old when he won the title at UFC 128)

• Champ moonlights as a crime fighter: Hours before the biggest fight of his life – against then-UFC champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – Jones journeyed to a New Jersey park to meditate. He and two of his trainers, Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn, heard a woman scream and ran to her head. Against the wishes of his coaches, Jones ran down and double-leg tackled a mugger, then put the thief in a figure-four leg lock until police arrived. Jones even gave the bad guy a little advice: “It’s not right taking other people’s money from them. They work hard for it.”

• Brother, Arthur, plays defensive line for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL; another brother, Chandler, is a defensive lineman at Syracuse University in New York (Note: Arthur Jones also played college football at Syracuse)

• Genesis: Began training MMA in 2007 because “I had an unexpected child and I needed to make some money.”

• College: Earned associate’s degree from Iowa Central Community College (coincidentally, the same Jr. College that Cain Velasquez attended)

• Championship wrestling pedigree: Junior College national champ in 2006 (197 pounds), New York State champ in high school

• 6 feet 4 inches tall, with an 84.5-inch reach – longest in UFC history at any weight class

• Tragedy: Sister passed away from brain cancer at age 18

• “The Future is Now” – describes how many UFC fans and pundits feel about Jon Jones and his one-in-a-million potential

• 13-1 record; lone loss was via disqualification to Matt Hamill in 2009. Jones dominated the entire fight and punished Hamill and many fans feel that the referee should have perhaps penalized Jones a point for illegal elbows rather than disqualifying him.